Georgina Recommends – Hanuri Korean Restaurant Calahonda
We visited Hanuri restaurant in Calahonda recently and it was an absolute revelation! I love Asian food, but had never tried Korean before and as soon as I started enjoying the taste and the experience I wondered why this great food hasn’t become more widely known. I could taste flavours I recognised from Chinese food, and a concept and approach I recognised from Japanese cuisine, but this really brought together the best of both.
There was the fresh, healthy, clean feeling of Japanese food with the reverence they show for the finest ingredients, enhanced with flavourings and marinades, rather than swamped with sauce. This was enriched by a strong flavour, spices and herbs which you know from Chinese cooking, which made the food more interesting than Japanese food can be.
We had a set menu including a range of starters, a Korean Barbeque and a traditional rice dish, followed by a delicious pudding. As well as the most delicious and unusual tastes, there was the brilliant theatre and fun of cooking your own food on a coal bbq in your own table, the only one in Spain the owner told us. Its amazing design hardly emits any smoke, doesn’t make the place boiling, and it’s so much fun!
But before I jump ahead, let’s talk about the starters, which really got my taste buds tingling.